TALKING'S DERBY

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 84, 6 October 1936, Page 15

TALKING'S DERBY

NEW ZEALAND-BRED DAM

According to all accounts of the race, the New Zealand horse Mala was desperately unlucky not to win the A.J.C. Derby on Saturday. But the records must now note Talking as the victor of this year's classic. Talking is the first son of Magpie to have won either the A.J.C. or V.R.C. Derby. However, Windbag, who did not contest the Derbies, won the Melbourne Cup for his sire, and Black Ronald was a Magpie horse to win the New Zealand Derby Talking, prior to his defeat by Shakespeare in the Rosehill Guineas, was generally regarded as likely to be Gold Rod's most formidable opponent in the Derby, for early in the term he won at w.f.a. in the Rosehill Wentworth Stakes and the Warwick Stakes; but he lost caste after Rosehill. He was a fairly well-performed two-year-old last season, winning two juvenile events, but at that period of his career he did not look like achieving classic honours. Though by Magpie, Talking has an immediate New Zealand maternal ancestry. Society, his dam, is Dominion bred, being by Absurd from First Class, by All Black from Class, by Wallace from La Tosca, by Robinson Crusoe from Nightmare, by Panic from Evening Star, by Lord Clifden. Nightmare was a sister to the great stayer Commotion and was dam of the Melbourne Cup winner Mentor and of Insomnia, dam of the great Wakeful. First Class and Society .were bred by the Stead family and the former was a half-sister to Bon Ton, The Toff, and Eligible. Class was a sister to Burletta, the dam of Radnor and Tanadees, and a half-sister to La Notte, the dam of Noctuiform, Midnight Sun, and Nightfall Evening Star, the taproot of the family in Australia, achieved great fame through her descendants. The greatest in the line was Wakeful, and .Talking descends through La Tosca, who was full-sister to Wakeful's dam (Insomnia) . La Tosca was a sturdy little mare and a thorough stayer, among the many races redounding to her credit being the Adelaide Birthday Cup, which she won as a three-year-old, the AJ.C. St. Leger, and the A.J.C. Plate (3 miles). ' ~_ Among La Tosca's foals were the Eiridspord filly La Notte, who was bought for New Zealand by the late Mr. G. G. Stead. From La Notte Mr. Stead bred that great mare' Nightfall and that great colt Noctuiform. At the dispersal sale following Mr. Stead's death in 1908, La Notte, carrying Midnight Sun, was secured by Mr. E. J. Watt, and it is therefore passing strange that the Derby on Saturday, should have been won by one of La Tosca's descendants, while Mr. Watt's Gold Rod was the "certainty" beaten: La Tosca, at the dispersal sale of Mr. W. R. Wilson's stud in 1900, was bought by Mr. F. J. Austin. She had at the time a colt foal by Wallace at foot, and that foal was to be the gallant F.J.A., who won the V.R.C. Derby for Sir Rupert Clarke in 1903. Besides her foal at foot when she was sold, La Tosca was again in foal to. Wallace, and she later dropped, a filly who was named Class. Trained by J. Scobie, Class proved a smart galloper. Class was subsequently acquired by Mr. G. G. Stead, who was haying such great success with the offspring of La Notte, and at Mr. Stead's death she

passed into the possession of Mr. Stead's sons, Messrs. Wilfrid and Gerald. The first foal bred from her by Mr. Stead's sons was that good stayer Bon Ton, and later came Bon Ton's brothers Eligible and The Toff, both high-class stayers. When aged fourteen years, Class dropped the All Black filly First Class. The first foal of First Class-was that smart horse Preposterer, by Absurd. A year later came Preposterer's sister Society, the dam of Talking. This in brief is the rather lengthy line of chance and result leading up to the production of the latest Derby winner. Talking was among the yearlings offered from Mr. Percy Miller's stud in the autumn of last year. He did not command much atention from prospective buyers, and A. G. Papworth was able to get him for 120 guineas. Mr. Papworth evidently did not think much of his bargain, for he disposed of him to Mr. S. Cash, in whose colours he has done all his racing.